Wilmington, NC

We decided to go on a brief, three-day hiatus from our life in Carrboro-Chapel Hill by making a trip to the coast of North Carolina. We have been to Wilmington before, which is a historic port with colorful houses and people. Upon arrival at our friend Jay's Blue Heaven Bed and Breakfast here, we settled in and enjoyed a warm afternoon on the porch, conversing about all sorts of things (Jay is full of interesting anecdotes and stories), chatting with neighbors as they walked by, and even engaging in some creative "recycling." One of Jay's neighbors had spotted a contraption left outside another house that looked a bit like a batchtub, though somewhat small. She wanted to carry it to her house, to use with a BVM, and she wanted us to help her do that by stealing it off the side of the road.

We convinced her that she should just ask the owner who had discarded it if she could take it, which she did. It was, of course, no problem. But what is a BVM anyway? She explained that it was a "Blessed Virgin Mary", which I (Marc) took to mean that she had a statue of Mary that she wanted to mount in a bathtub? Don't ask me what spawned this idea in her mind; in fact she doesn't even have a BVM and now wants to seek one out for this project. What a strange idea!

After enjoying the afternoon, we had a nice dinner of tuna sashimi with rice and asparagus, and then chatted some more before turning in somewhat early. We had hoped to watch Jason Jabaut (a CAC teammate) on flotrack running the 1500 meter race at Stanford, but unfortunately, he had to scratch owing to a freak back injury. I cannot imagine traveling all the way out west to race in such a prestigious race and then having to withdraw. He must have been upset.

We woke up this morning and went for a run to Greenfield Lake - a picturesque little lake nearby. Then we had a lazy morning, enjoying the breakfast here at Jay's with his fiance Donna and two guests at the hotel. We'll be here until Tuesday night.